Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) issued Insight Instruction No. 43, detailing the handling of high-risk refund cases for the Assessment Year 2024-25. TAN-based clusters of suspicious Income Tax Returns (ITRs) have been identified, suspecting false refund claims made in an organized manner or via a key individual. These cases have been assigned to jurisdictional CIT (TDS) for thorough verification. The CIT may allocate clusters to specific assessing officers (AOs) for integrated inquiries. The AOs must submit feedback via the Insight portal, indicating whether further risk assessment is required or not. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is attached to guide the verification process, and step-by-step instructions are provided for uploading reports in the Insight portal. In case of technical difficulties, users are directed to the Insight helpdesk. This instruction aims to address cases involving incorrect TDS credit claims, understated income, or bogus deductions in tax refund claims
Insight Instruction No, 43
DIRECTORATE OF INCOME TAX (SYSTEMS)
ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR GENERAL OF INCOME TAX(SYSTEMS)-2
ARA Centre, Ground Floor, E-2, Jhandewalan Extension,
New Delhi-110055
F. No. DGIT(S)/ADG(S)-2/HRR/2024-25/ 618
Dated : 03.10.2024
To,
All CCITs(TDS.)ICITs(TDS)
Madam / Sir,
Sub.:- High Risk Refund Cases pertaining to A.Y- 2024-25 disseminated for TDS charge officers at Insight – reg.
Kind reference is invited to the above subject.
2. TAN based cluster of High Risk refund ITRs for A.Y-2024-25, identified based upon certain rules are being disseminated to the CslT(TDS) for the purpose of verification of suspicion that false claims of refunds have been made in an organised manner or through a single key person.
3. Upon receiving the cluster, the CIT(TDS) may preferably allocate one or more cluster to a particular assessing officer(AO) i.e. DCIT/ACIT/ITO for integrated and comprehensive inquiries.
4. AOs need to verify the cases and provide one of the following feedbacks in Insight Portal after verification:
a) “No Further Risk Assessment required” or
b) “Further risk assessment required”
5. In this regard, SOP for verification of High-Risk Refund (HRR) cases by TDS charge officers is attached as Annexure-A. All the aspects mentioned in the SOP have to be examined in detail before submitting the feedback as mentioned above. Further, kindly refer to Annexure-B for Step-by-Step guidance on uploading of verification report on Insight portal.
6. In case of any technical difficulty being observed, users may contact or write to Insight help desk, (Helpdesk number- 1800-103-4216, Email id: [email protected]).
Yours faithfully,
(Nikhil Varma)
ADG(Systems)-2, Now Delhi.
Copy to:
PPS to the Chairman, Member (S&FS), Member (TPS), Member(L), Member (A&J), Member (Adm.) & Member (IT & Rev.), CBDT and DGIT(Systems), New Delhi for information.
ADG(Systems)-2, New Delhi.
Annexure A -Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for CIT(TDS) for verification of High-Risk Refund (HRR) cases (TAN level clusters)
It has been noticed that many return filers are claiming excess refunds through various means such as wrong claim of TDS credit, under reporting of income, over stating of deductions, claim of bogus expenses etc. Accordingly, some cases have been identified based upon approved risk rules for high risk refunds.
These cases consist of ITR filers, in which common employer Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) have been reported. Details of such high-risk clusters are being sent to the respective jurisdictional CIT(TDS) for the purpose of verification of suspicion that whether false claims of refunds have been made in an organized manner or through a single key person. Such cases should be verified as per the procedure prescribed below.
Guidelines for handling high risk refund cases (TAN level clusters) disseminated by Pr. DGIT / DGIT (Systems).
1) Upon receiving the cluster, the jurisdictional CIT(TDS) may preferably allocate one or more cluster to a particular assessing officer of DCIT/ACIT/ITO for integrated and comprehensive inquiries.
2) The Assessing Officer (AO) will get cases in Insight portal in Verification Module with a new case type- “High Risk Refund Cases-TDS”.
3) The AO needs to refer to the relevant Insight Instruction for accessing the case type and related details in Insight Portal.
4) The AO must submit timely feedback in Insight Portal after verification. The AO must give feedback as “No Further Risk Assessment required” or “Further risk assessment required” after verification.
5) CIT(TDS) may run an outreach program with cluster TAN Deductor where the AO has given the feedback “Further risk assessment required”, to sensitize the deductee with respect to the claim of deductions by the taxpayers in variance with the claim of deductions as per TDS return filed by the deductor.
6) While verifying the AO will take care of following aspects:
i. To examine if the TAN of the TAN cluster has been flagged in High-Risk Refund rules in 3 or more years out of last 8 / available years as available in Insight Portal. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
ii. To examine if any penalty order has been passed or prosecution has been launched on the deductor for any TDS default in any of the latest 3 Penalty Orders /prosecution proceedings out of last 8 years as available in TRACES AO Portal. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
iii. To examine if any demand u/s 201 was raised for 3 or more years out of last 8 years in TRACES AO Portal. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
To examine if the TAN of the TAN cluster has been reported in the TDS defaulter report in TRACES AO portal. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
Annexure B- Step by Step reference guide
Navigation to Cluster Verification
1. After successfully login to Insight, user needs to navigate to Verification and Select “Verification” displayed under Cluster Tab to navigate to High Risk Refund- TDS
Navigate to High Risk Refund cases- TDS
2. User will be navigated to Cluster Case summary view to select High Risk Refund Cases User needs to click on count as displayed below to navigate to Group Case List View.
Navigate to Group Case List View
3. In Group Case List view, user will be able to view Group cases created on Employer TAN
4. User will be able to download Group Case List excel having additional details like count of PANs in group cases, PAN name and PANs in group cases.
5. User will be able to reassign group in bulk from this view.
6. By clicking “Group ID” hyperlink user will be navigated to Group Case Detail View.
Group Case Detail View and Group Case level activities
7. At Group Case Detail View, user will be able to view Details of PANs available in group i.e. PANs Name, PAN, and Case id of Individual PAN .
a. User will be able to click on Case IID Hyperlink to navigate to Case Detail view of single PAN.
8. Following Group Case level activities will be available to the user at Group Case Detail Page
a. Reassign Case
b. Submit Feedback
c. Enter Comments
d. View Upload Case attachments.
Enter Comments
9. The following screen will be visible to user on clicking activity “Enter Comments”. User will be able to update comments in the case which will be visible to the user and all supervisor in hierarchy (In cumulative View).
Reassign Case
10. User will be able to Reassign Group case to the Reporting Officer and Subordinates in hierarchy.
Submit Feedback
11. This activity will be performed by ITD User to submit the Feedback on the Group Case.
12. The AO must give feedback as “No Further Risk Assessment required” or “Further risk assessment required” after verification.
13. Remarks will be mandatory.
14. User will also be able to add documents in support of the feedback.
15. On clicking submit button, Feedback will be submitted and the status of the case will be updated from “Under Verification” to “Verified”.
History of activities performed at Group Case Level
16. History of Activities performed at Group Case Level will be visible to ITD user at Activity Tab available at Group Case Detail view.
17. The page will display Activity ID wise activities with complete details of remarks and documents uploaded by user while performing the activity.
Case Detail View
18. The Case Detail page will display details of case available on individual PAN in the group.
19. The Case Detail page will provide detail of Verification Issue on the PAN
20. View hyperlink will navigate the user to Information Detail view.
Information Detail View
21. Information Detail view will provide detail of Information underlying the Verification Issue. TSN will be hyperlink which will provide detail of Information like Acknowledgement Number, Date of Filing, Form Type and Filing Type.
TSN Pop up view
Case Level activities available on Individual PAN Case
22. User will be able to below mention activities at Individual PAN Case level.
a. Enter Comments- This activity will allow ITD user to enter case level comments. The history of activity performed by ITD User will be visible to all supervisors in hierarchy (in cumulative view).
b. View upload Case attachments – This activity will allow ITD User to upload documents relevant to the case. The history of activity performed along with the documents uploaded by the ITD User will be visible to all supervisors in hierarchy (in cumulative view).
View Previous Years HRR Issue in Taxpayer Profile views
23. The user will be able to view the Details of the High-Risk Refund issues flagged on PAN of the Taxpayer in Previous years, if any, in Taxpayer Profile Views under Taxpayer Annual Summary (TAS).
24. User needs to select the relevant Assessment Year filter.
25. User will be able to click on view hyperlink and view the Verification issues of previous year acknowledgement Number wise.
Viewing the the Feedback submitted in Respective PAN in Profile views
26. The Feedback submitted in bulk in the case by TDS user will be visible in Taxpayer Profile views of Respective PANs.
27. Any IITD User having level 2 access over PAN will be able to view the Feedback submitted by TDS Function Code user in HRR – TDS case under Taxpayer Annual Summary (TAS)>>Information>>uploads.
28. User will be able to view complete details of the Feedback submitted along with documents uploaded.
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